With months to go before the next general elections, the state of the Indian economy is not looking as promising as the Modi government would have wanted it to be. Despite the move towards what was to be a simpler tax structure through the Good and Services Tax (GST), certain far-reaching reforms on the financial front through the new insolvency laws and benign crude oil prices for most of its tenure, the government seems to be grappling with a precarious economy.

Although the economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in this fiscal, one does not get a sense of buoyancy all around. Be it the question of jobs, or investment, or new projects, there is a sense that much more could have been done. In general, many continue to feel that the economic performance of the Modi government is better than the UPA government, but the number of those who tend to believe so is falling.

While 49 per cent of the respondents believe the economic performance of the BJP-led NDA government is better than that of the Congress-led UPA government, there is a drop of seven percentage points in last one year. As many as 28 per cent also feel that this government is worse than the previous government in terms of its economic performance, which is the highest negative score in the last seven surveys.

There is also a slight fall in the percentage of those who believe that their economic status (income and saving) has changed in the past five years. Although 40 per cent of the respondents feel that their economic status has improved in the last five years, it constitutes a drop of six percentage points over the last one year from MOTN January 2018.